ALMONACID, Sebastián de
(b. ca. 1460, Torrijos, d. 1526, ?)

Tomb of Martin Vázquez

1490s
Marble
Cathedral, Sigüenza

Toledan Hispano-Flemish spread rapidly through central Spain and on into the northwest. It is characterized as much by the marked ornamentalism of its forms as by the simplicity of its masses and its human sentiment. The principal Spanish exponent of this style was the sculptor Sebastián de Almonacid, whose name first appears in 1486. He is the author of the double tomb of the Constable Alvaro de Luna and his wife in Toledo cathedral, and is thought to have carved the tomb of Martin Vázquez de Arce in Sigüenza cathedral. The idealized realism of the effigy is one of the supreme achievements of Spanish plastic art.